


Haunted Malec

by Fluxx



Series: The Spook Cruise, 2017 [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alec doesn't like ghosts, Halloween, Haunted House, M/M, Magnus doesn't like baboons, Malec, Scared Alec Lightwood, Scared Magnus Bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-07
Updated: 2017-10-07
Packaged: 2019-01-10 09:04:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12295902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fluxx/pseuds/Fluxx
Summary: After receiving a tip through Catarina, Magnus and Alec venture to an old, abandoned estate on the outskirts of town to investigate reports of possible demonic activity. What they find certainly didn't come from any realm of Hell, but that doesn't make either of them any happier about it, and they must help each other through their fears to put their spectral guest at last to rest.Prompt response for The Spook Cruise, 2017:Malec + Haunted House.Submit a prompt for The Spook Cruise!





	Haunted Malec

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gracie_the_shadow_writer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gracie_the_shadow_writer/gifts).



“You sure this is the place?”

Magnus flashed him a wicked grin. “My dear Shadowhunter, you’re not scared are you?”

“ _No_ ,” Alec insisted. Looking back up at the mansion before him, he couldn’t help but shudder. “Just seems like an odd place for a demon attack, is all.”

At that, Magnus raised a brow. “Not dismantled enough?” That was an absurd notion - the place was shattered and splintered in just about place it  _could_  be. The house still stood, but they suspected only barely.

“Not… lively enough,” Alec eventually settled on. “Nothing to attack.” Finally, he reached out and pulled open the wrought-iron gate barring the overgrown lawn off from the street. It was rusted, and gave an unsettling screech as the catch dragged across the pavement.

Magnus cringed at the sound, more out of discomfort than anything else. “What happened to this place?” he murmured as they strolled up the long, winding walkway, weeds breaching through the unkempt asphalt through ugly, scar-like cracks.

“Nothing unusual,” Alec shrugged. “Some rich lady that died of old age. A ‘Mrs. Gellard,’ I think it was. Apparently, she didn’t leave a will - public records say the whole estate is tied up in legal battles while her kids fight over their inheritance.”

It was enough to make Magnus roll his eyes. “Oh, to have the frivolous concerns of the Mundane.” He sighed, almost wistfully, and turned back to Alec with a small smile. “Sometimes I envy them. Though, they can’t enjoy  _all_  the Shadow World has to offer.” He made a show of looking Alec head-to-toe, suggestively biting his lip.

Alec parted his lips to reply, but as his hand reached for the door something inside the house snapped, causing them both to jump. When nothing more followed, they relaxed, chuckling lightly to themselves. “Probably a rat, or something.”

“Probably,” Magnus agreed. He leaned over to peer past Alec into the mansion’s dark confines. The moonlight just barely breached the threshold, bathing the foyer in a soft, delicate blue light. “Or the demon.”

“Right,” Alec muttered, pulling a witchlight stone from his pocket. Magnus, whose hands had already raised in preparation of a spell, gave him a peculiar look, so he explained, “So you don’t have to waste your magic on a mystical flashlight.”

Magnus chortled and lowered his hands. “A ‘mystical flashlight’?”

Alec shrugged, willing the witchlight to life and drawing out his Seraph blade. “I haven’t finished  _The Complete Guide to All Things Magical_. It’s a bit of a slow read - not at all as interesting as I’d hoped.”

“You should’ve started with  _Magic For Dummies_. It’s an excellent beginner’s tome.”

The next few moments passed in near-silence, the pair of them slowly making their way through the twisting and convoluted mansion. Occasionally, one or the other of them would point at one of the deceased woman’s many eclectic decorations - gaudy sterling silver goblets, porcelain statues of absurdly-accessorized animals, frayed and tassel-trimmed couches and armchairs whose patterned upholstery could have easily doubled as bathroom wallpaper. They’d share a snicker, or a roll of the eyes, and move on to the next room, both on guard for the slightest sign of demonic activity.

But by the time they finished the first landing, still nothing out of the ordinary presented itself. Magnus lowered his hands, and Alec his blade, and they exchanged a dumbfounded look. “Like I said,” Alec repeated, “are you  _sure_  this is the place?”

“Catarina was  _quite_  clear,” Magnus insisted. “All of her patients reported strange activity from this address.”

“Aren’t they all old and senile?” Alec pointed out.

Magnus scowled. “So? With so many identical testimonies, I rather doubt—”

A loud crash interrupted him, followed by a frantic and thudding scampering, the sound so sudden it startled the both of them. Immediately, their gazes snapped to the wide stairs that curved around the expansive foyer. The gold leaf of its thick banister was chipped away in places, leaving its dark rosewood exposed in a matter that rather resembled blotches of blood or dark mold.

Alec groaned, his eyes trailing up the stairs. “I guess it’s stable enough…”

Magnus rose a brow and gestured towards them with an open palm. “Care to lead the way? You have the witchlight, after all.”

“Oh. Yeah,” Alec muttered, reluctantly moving to the lead.

The whole way up, Magnus couldn’t suppress a grin. “My, my… If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were  _frightened_ , Mr. Lightwood!”

Alec shot a quick glare over his shoulder. “Come on, you’re not even a  _little_  freaked out?”

With a casual shrug, Magnus replied, “There’s not much I haven’t gotten used to over the centuries.”

“Regardless,” Alec scoffed, “I just don’t want to fall through the floor, is all.” He frowned downward as they arrived on the next landing, the floorboards creaking painfully under their feet.

“The place does seem quite a bit more downtrodden on the inside,” Magnus thoughtfully remarked. A swift shudder followed, and reflexively his hands moved to rub his arms. “And cold.”

Alec moved closer to him with a nod. “No kidding.” He raised his witchlight, its illumination spreading far enough to reveal the whole landing, and the dark hallways lining its edge…

…and the refracting discs of two eyes, low to the ground, mounted atop a long and fanged snout of red and blue hues.

As soon as the light hit its face, both it  _and_  Magnus released blood-curdling shrieks, the thing quickly darting off down the hall while Alec whirled, wide-eyed and heart racing. The sight had scared him plenty, but  _Magnus_ …

The Warlock stared up at him reproachfully, cheeks flushing beneath the witchlight. “ _Quiet_ ,” he grumbled, knowing precisely what was running through Alec’s mind.

Alec was still caught between confusion, amusement, and his own dose of fear. As he blinked, dumbfounded, he reviewed the face they’d seen, then replied, “…Magnus, that was a monkey.”

“A mandrill  _baboon_ , to be precise.”

“Right.” He turned to start leading the way towards the hall where the animal had made its retreat. “Didn’t you  _own_  a monkey?”

“That’s different!” Magnus retorted indignantly. “Ragnor was a kind and gentle monkey, not some hideous and screeching tantrum-scamp!”

Alec frowned over his shoulder. “…’Ragnor’? I thought that was your Warlock buddy?”

Magnus rolled his eyes, urging Alec to continue on down the hall with a gentle prod. “It’s a long story. Let’s just get this over with.” Under his breath, Alec barely caught him grumble as they moved, “…’demon attack’… I’ll have that witch’s—”

A resounding crash echoed from down a hall behind them, followed by more scurrying in front of them. Reflexively, they drew closer together, Alec raising his witchlight and Magnus spinning around and summoning magic sparks to his fingertips. They waited, frozen in their tracks in await of more activity. Alec tilted his head to whisper over his shoulder. “Either there’s more than one monkey, or we found our demon.”

“Wonderful,” Magnus replied with a nod. “I’ll take care of the demon.”

Alec rolled his eyes, then turned around to begin leading the way towards the other sound. “Or, we can  _both_  take care of the demon. Because that’s what we’re here for. Not monkeys.”

Magnus gave him a reproachful look. “So you’re just going to let that thing run about? It could sneak up behind us and—”

“ _Magnus_ ,” Alec interrupted, turning to face his boyfriend. Magnus could see a bit of weariness tugging at his features, but he didn’t let that stop him from offering a kind smile, then moving in to press his forehead meaningfully against Magnus’s. “You’re the  _High Warlock of Brooklyn_. You got this.”

He couldn’t exactly protest the point, so he simply pouted before continuing towards the crash. “Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“No,” Alec chuckled, “you don’t.”

Having Alec close by certainly helped. Even without seeing him, Magnus could feel Alec’s presence close behind, his Angelic warmth emanating off him like the rays of a midday sun. It didn’t make him feel any better about the miserable gremlin darting about unseen in the house’s foreboding shadows, but it reminded him he was no longer alone, at least. That knowledge in and of itself brought a smile to his lips, even  _if_  he felt about two seconds away from lighting the whole estate aflame just to get rid of that awful creature.

But, as they stepped quietly into another large sitting room, Magnus realized something appeared to be bothering Alec. He turned with a furrowed brow and inquired, “What is it?”

Alec’s hands had moved to fold amid his arms, awkwardly holding his Seraph blade and witchlight as best he could despite it. “Nothing,” Alec replied, a bit confused by the question. “Just a bit chilly.”

“Mmm,” Magnus murmured. The temperature had dropped even further than when they’d reached the top of the stairs. Enough cold had now set in to the desolate rooms and ominous halls that their breath plumed before their faces, and goosebumps had formed along their skin. As he considered all this, a thought occurred to Magnus. “A ghost?”

Alec appeared about to reject the notion, but even as he’d parted his lips to reply he began to realize it wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. “That’d definitely explain the cold.  _And_  the crashing.”

“But not the fur-monster.”

“No, not the monkey,” Alec snickered. “Or, at least—”

A hazy figure suddenly passed through the room, as swift as a flash of light, bringing with it a sudden pitch in temperature. Alec let out a small cry and jumped closer to Magnus. He nearly dropped the witchlight in the process, but Magnus’s hand found his, a renewed grin touching his thin lips. “So, for you it’s ghosts, then?”

It earned him a sharp glare. “At least ghosts are  _actually_  scary.”

Magnus chuckled, pleased to have a “partner in fear” as it were. “Whatever you say, my dear Shadowhunter.” He let the magic die down from his hands and turned to take in the rest of the room. “Well, I suppose we won’t be fighting anything, then.”

Although Alec was already lowering and sheathing his Seraph blade, he nonetheless asked, “There might also be an actual demon though, right?”

Magnus shook his head, still surveying the room as best he could in the witchlight’s sparse illumination. “That filthy mongrel aside, I haven’t sensed a single trace of demonic energy since we passed through that gate. Catarina’s patients were probably responding to some combination of it and the ghost.”

After warily glancing around the place the ghost had briefly appeared, Alec moved away towards the fireplace. A number of photographs framed in elegant, ornate gold lined the mantle, layers of dust dulling the faces held within. “So, we just gotta figure out how to help them move on.” He looked over his shoulder, one of the framed pictures in hand. “It’s gotta be the lady, right? Mrs. Gellard?”

Magnus nodded, narrowed eyes scouring every last detail of the room. “I’d presume so, yes. That doesn’t explain the house guest, though.”

His eyes fell upon an odd, twisting structure laying upon the floor a few yards away. With a tap to Alec’s shoulder and a point, he directed Alec’s witchlight towards it, the hot-white light peeling away the darkness to reveal something long and winding, about as thick as an arm. The severe shadows cast by the intense light made it difficult to tell exactly what it was - Alec held the answer in his hand, moving the picture forward into Magnus’s view.

“I think… the monkey is Mrs. Gellard’s pet…”

As soon as he saw the picture, Magnus quickly looked away, cringing. Sure enough, that accursed creature was pictured within the frame, perched upon a brightly-smiling woman’s lap. In his opinion, the ‘pet’ looked absolutely  _miserable_ , but then again he rather thought  _all_  members of its particular species did, constantly, all the time. “Wonderful,” he grumbled, turning to continue surveying the room. “Why couldn’t it have been an ocelot? Don’t most Mundane millionaire matrons go for ocelots? ‘ _Oh, what adorable little kittens!_ ’ Did our ‘Mrs. Gellard’ not receive the memo?”

Alec rolled his eyes and set the picture frame back upon the mantle. “You’re just upset we actually  _do_  have to go address the monkey.” A tense hesitation came over him, and anxiously he looked around the room. “…That’s it, right?” he called out. “You’re upset about your pet?”

A heavy silence consumed his question for a few moments before something rustled from one corner of the room. They both jumped and spun in its direction, just in time to see some kind of rectangular, wicker container topple over, spilling its contents across the marble floor.

“Uh… Th-Thanks?” Alec called out again, hesitantly moving towards the fallen objects. He moved his witchlight ahead of him, a wide variety of various items slipping into view beneath its light.

Magnus knelt to examine then, then quickly stood up and backed away with a wrinkled nose. “Ugh. They  _reek_!”

“The monkey’s toys?” Alec asked, taking Magnus’s place beside the objects. He reached out to warily touch his fingertips to one of them - something that looked like it used to be a stuffed animal of some sort. The fur was clumped into thick tufts, darkened where immense amounts of saliva had once dried. He made a face, plucking it off the ground between his thumb and a single fingertip, holding it far away from him. “Yep. Definitely some kind of chew toy.”

“That is disgusting.” Magnus turned to snarl at the rest of the room. “What would  _possibly_  inspire you to acquire such a  _ridiculous_  pet?!”

An angry shriek and sweep of ghastly light across the room answered, inspiring Alec to suddenly drop the toy and huddle closer to him. “ _Magnus_! Don’t antagonize her!” he practically whimpered.

Magnus folded his arms and raised a brow at him. “Since you’re so skittish about our other-worldly friend, and I have  _no_  intention of going anywhere near that  _monster_ , perhaps you should retrieve the pet while I entertain the ghost?”

Alec was still searching the middle of the room in wide-eyed fright as he eagerly nodded. “Yes, please. I don’t enjoy things I can’t put an arrow through.”

“Given the circumstances, I’ll keep my commentary to myself.”

Alec snickered, then gave Magnus a quick hug around his shoulders and light peck to the side of his head. “I’ll be right back.”

Magnus wove him off with a strained smile. He couldn’t  _wait_  to be done with this place, back in their loft and  _far_  from Mrs. Gellard and her peculiar choice of companionship. The loft was warm and comforting, and this place was nothing but cold and dismal. Idly glancing around the room, he continued eyeing its furnishings, still pristine aside from the few things the deceased woman had knocked over. A mild guilt touched him as he realized the place probably hadn’t been much more lively in Mrs. Gellard’s life than it was in her death.

Tantrum-throwing distortion of Homo sapiens aside, of course.

He narrowed his eyes at the vacant space around him. “I suppose that’s  _why_  you acquired that wretched thing, isn’t it?”

Slowly, the wrinkled and sagging face of Mrs. Gellard phased into view, glowering at him from behind a few strands of white hair loosed from her bun. Her mouth stretched wide and she howled wordlessly at him - it didn’t do much more than rustle his wildly spiked hair, but a sudden stumbling from somewhere else in the house indicated he hadn’t been the only one to hear it.

“Go easy on him, would you?” Magnus grumbled. “He’s got enough kindness in his heart to deal with your putrid choice of company.”

Mrs. Gellard appeared to want to say something, but as she couldn’t she simply turned with a huff and upturned nose, arms folding across her chest.

Beside her, he did the same. Periodically, his eyes anxiously flickered to the room’s entry, dreading the reappearance of Mrs. Gellard’s pet. His foot began rapping upon the ground - he wondered if he really  _had_  to be there for this.

_Of course you do_ , he thought with a resigned sigh and fond smile.  _Alec wouldn’t be able to face Mrs. Gellard without you, just as you wouldn’t be able to face that damn baboon._  Still, his hands tightened about his arms and he glared at Mrs. Gellard. “I don’t suppose you could let it be just a  _little_  warmer?”

She sneered at him, and perhaps considered tossing some other piece of furniture in outrage, but rays of white light had drifted through into the room, soon followed by Alec’s tall silhouette. Usually, it would have been a lean and muscular frame, but a huge mass expanded his torso - Mrs. Gellard’s expression brightened, as much as it could anyway, when she saw her precious friend hooked around Alec’s neck, the Shadowhunter’s arms wrapped securely around its legs and waist.

Overjoyed, she released a hollow wail and drifted toward them - Alec jumped in surprise, the baboon freaked out in his arms, and Magnus winced and half-turned at the creature’s resulting terrifying expression. Altogether, it got Mrs. Gellard to pause, her manner falling beside a gentle, ghastly groan. Magnus moved to awkwardly attempt to comfort her, Alec meanwhile struggling to console her pet.

“H-Hey, there, it’s okay, it’s okay!” he urged, fighting to keep a secure hold of the frightened animal. His free hand reached around to stroke its back, and he half-turned so Mrs. Gellard was no longer in view. “You’re alright, buddy, you’re alright…”

Magnus released a dreamy sigh as he beheld Alec’s kindness. Mrs. Gellard eyed him beneath a risen brow. He caught her look, then after a brief pause asserted, “ _Alec_  isn’t a  _terrorizing ingrate_.”

She rolled her eyes and looked back at Alec and her baboon. Alec was staring at her, then quickly looked to Magnus. “W-What?”

Magnus wove the matter aside. “Don’t you mind it.” He nodded towards the baboon. “And how is our… erm…  _friend_ … doing?”

Alec gave his familiarly goofy grin before regarding the creature in his arms, his hand still idly stroking its back. “We’re good. Right, buddy? We’re okay.” Still hugging the baboon close to him, he steadily walked closer to Magnus and Mrs. Gellard, a feat he found easier to accomplish if he kept his attentions trained on the baboon rather than the ghost.

The baboon remained obviously agitated in his arms, but less so at least, and finally Alec was close enough that it could reach out and touch Mrs. Gellard if it wanted - Magnus, too. He subconsciously shifted behind Mrs. Gellard, as if that might somehow protect him from her pet’s antics.

Mrs. Gellard knelt, sunken eyes drenched in pain, and warily held out her hand.

Alec, still doing everything he could to ignore her, shifted to slowly bring the ghost into the baboon’s view. “See? Everything’s… E-Everything’s okay… !” Distantly, he realized his own anxiety probably wasn’t helping things.

Nonetheless, the baboon’s wrestling gradually eased, and its tiny beady eyes stopped darting about in panic. Its calm maintained through Alec’s continuous petting, it finally started adjusting to is master’s new appearance, getting used to the bone-penetrating cold and eerie, foggy haze. It came to focus upon Mrs. Gellard’s face, at last registering her features, her smile, the intonations of her nonsensical whispering.

Finally, it released another, small cry, one that still managed to startle Magnus but was far from its earlier shrieking. It gingerly climbed down from Alec’s arms and reached out a hesitant hand - Magnus reflexively took a step back as the baboon’s hand drifted clear through Mrs. Gellard’s, and it released something like a saddened whimper.

Mrs. Gellard uttered a similar moan, then slowly rose back to a stand and fixed Alec with a hard, snarling glare.

Alec jumped to his feet and rose his hands. “S-Sorry! I don’t… What?!”

Enduring the creepy little monstrosity as best he could, Magnus stepped around and laid a hand on - well,  _through_ … - Mrs. Gellard’s shoulder. “You want to make sure your pet is taken care of, correct?”

She turned her face to Magnus, lips hard-set, and nodded once. A hand began to flail at her pet’s toys, her mouth opening to allow more wailing nonsense to spill from her tongue.

Exhausted, Magnus wove a hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Yes, yes. Alec will take your pet to an exotic animal rescue.  _With_  his fine collection of belongings.” Mrs. Gellard uttered another short, curt sound, and when Magnus realized what it meant corrected, “…With  _her_  belongings.”

At last, Mrs. Gellard seemed satisfied, giving another short nod. Turning, she regarded her baboon with a smile, then finally began to fade, taking with her the air’s intense frost.

Alec sighed with relief, the color returning to his skin as much from his departing fear as the rise in temperature. “ _Finally_. I guess we have one last stop to make before we’re done though, huh?”

Magnus groaned, hands already waving to throw a large portal into the space beside them. “I’ll get the chew toys…”


End file.
